Module 3 : Historical Survey of Buddhist Thought - by Dr Bhikkhuni Bodhi
Lecture Notes given by Venerable Bodhi:
Lecture 2 (13-10-04) Map of India Description of Map Lecture 3 (20-10-04)
Lecture 4 (27-10-04) Lecture 6(10-11-04) Lecture 7(17-11-04) Lecture 9(1-12-04)
Personal lesson notes update:
Lesson 1(6-10-04) Lesson 2 (13-10-04) Lesson 3 (20-10-04) Lesson 4 (27-10-04)
Lesson 5 (3-11-04) Lesson 6 (10-11-04)
Course Outline
The course will consist of a historical survey of the early Buddhist schools and their respective contribution to the development of Buddhist thought. The survey will begin with a review, in historical perspective, of the emergence of Buddhist schools after the Second Buddhist Council. The main focus will be on the Theravada, Mahasanghika, Vatsiputriya, Sarvastivada and Sautrantika schools. The course will conclude with the origins of Mahayana Buddhism and its ramification into schools. This will involve a study of the :
1) Mahayana sutra literature and its doctrinal orientations;
2) Madhyamaka school and the doctrine of emptiness,
3) Yogacara school and the doctrine of mind-only;
4) Theory and practice of the Bodhisattva ideal;
5)
Emergence
of Tantrayana as another dimension of the Mahayana
movement.
Reference
Nalinaksha Dutta, Early History of the Spread of Buddhism and Buddhist Schools, Luzac & Company, London, 1925.
Nalinaksha Dutta, Buddhist Sects in India, K.L. Muhopadhyaya, calcutta, 1970.
S.N. Dube, Cross Currents in Early Buddhism, Delhi, 1980.
A.K.Warder, Indian Buddhism, Motilal banarsidass, New Delhi, 1980.
Venerable Bhikshu Sangharakshita, A survey of Buddhism, New Delhi, 1965.
C.W.Huntington, The Emptiness of Emptiness : An Introduction to Early Indian Madhyamaka, Delhi, 1992 (Indian Edition)
A.K.Chatterjee, Yogacara Idealism, Varanasi, 1975.
Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in the Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi, 1975.
Agehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition, Anchor Books, Garden City, New York, 1970
